Amongst the many voices raised over Nuno’s travails at West Ham following two consecutive home defeats, some opinions deserve more consideration than others.
One former Championship player who knows only too well the challenges faced by teams struggling to compete in this, the toughest of the English leagues, has added to the growing suggestion that West Ham’s home form is suspect due to the weight of home expectation.
Important to remember that all three of the Irons’ defeats this season have come in front of an increasingly vocal, critical home fan base at London Stadium, and former Hull city and Peterborough striker Aaron McLean is certain it’s all down to the pressures of playing at home.
Writing for the bbc.co.uk after witnessing the Hammers’ second capitulation in two consecutive home games, McLean suggests:
“Opponents revelling in days out:
“West Ham just don’t seem to be handling the pressure.
The fanbase is very split in terms of whether they want Nuno Espirito Santo in charge but the thing you have to do when playing for West Ham in front of 60,000 fans is put in a performance and if you’re in the Championship, you have to win.
BBC pundit McLean believes the Hammers squad aren’t coping with the pressure of playing in front of their own, demanding fan base at home.
“When you have a lovely stadium and playing surface, teams want to go there and enjoy it.
If you make your home ground a fortress, that can work for you but at the moment, the London Stadium is not a fortress and teams are going there and enjoying the experience, which is the total opposite of what West Ham need.”
As we wrote last week, the very weight of expectation appears to be hanging heavily around the players’ necks at present. If that is the case then the up and coming away fixtures at Cardiff City and Blackburn Rovers this week will carry no such difficulties – merely unending vocal support from a travelling support that simply sings its heart out – whatever the match situation.
Just what Nuno’s men need right now. A couple of away days before the international break with the chance to get back to winning ways, without the weight of the world on their shoulders. Dealing with the pressure at home is another problem altogether.
I must admit disagree with the comment ‘if in the Championship you have to win’ and all this talk about we should be top of the table. Yes, we have a good squad but we have not played all the teams in the table at least once to place ourselves, so we are completely ignoring their qualities.
The team is not playing well. Team manager needs to adapt style of play to his players abilities, stop chopping and changing so team get to know each other’s style of play etc., etc., … we all have our ideas; just saying ‘must win’ is simply meaningless.
‘Automatic promotion’ & expecting Championship WHU to be able to recruit PL standard players to the club, same illusion, words which have been just as meaningless.
Constantly putting the cart before the horse.
fan base, positivity, right attitude are niceties, valuable extras. Get your team playing consistently good football, stop making managerial errors, stand up for your players off pitch, the rest will follow including player attitudes, fan base, positivity,…
Change training routines, coaching objectives, play a 45 min game against U21s to model style of football that good teams play in Championship.. I don’t know, but THINK! You the coaches are doing a lot of things wrong and the result is on the pitch – fix them..
Everyone is table watching amongst the pundits but WHU fans know that the manager is often his worst enemy. If team beat Cardiff and we go up in the table, it means little. What counts a lot more is HOW they win, seeing steady improvements from game to game, seeing a player shine (means coaching is working) and then, some consistency.
Style of play is important because if your team play quick, effective football with short passes, playing out of pressure or pressing well up front, it means there is an understanding between players and a cohesion throughout the team. So style of play does count.
Everything else such as player attitude, fanbase, excitement comes after, not before.
50,000 fans roaring you on…. Our players should be relishing it yet they lack the bravery to perform.
Instead our opponents are the ones showing the bravery. It’s a state of mind which our coach seems unable to develop and instil with this squad.